


Broken Glass

by dreyars



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 05:33:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4251234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreyars/pseuds/dreyars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven months after the Rapture, only one thing can be used to describe the new world.</p>
<p>Broken glass. Broken windows. Broken bottles. Broken mirrors.</p>
<p>Tsuki’s broken glasses in Yamaguchi's back pocket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was so quiet.

Quiet as the press of stale air on dirty skin.

Quiet as the soft slap of a stray cat’s paws on a dusty road.

As quiet as solitude and creaking knees and grinding teeth.

It seemed like it had been quiet for so long.

Ever since he had left the other guys behind.

Ever since he had disappeared.

Quiet.

As quiet as it could be with the groaning of a dead old tree outside of a skeleton house.   With cicadas chirping outside and the air rolling in waves so hot that you could almost hear it every time you stepped away from shelter.

It was a constant hum and a constant weight, and it was so, so quiet.

Yamaguchi woke from a shallow sleep only when the sun shifted far enough to strike him right in the face as it shone through the window.  He knew he should be more careful, that he shouldn’t be sleeping so heavily when he was all alone, but at this point, it didn’t really matter.

It didn’t matter _because_ he was alone. 

It had been six months since he became alone.

Seven months since it all started.            

The religious fanatics called it the ‘Rapture’, and since they didn’t have another name for it, that’s what everyone else started naming it, too.

People just started disappearing… nothing of them left behind as if they never existed. 

Only the purest of heart were able to go.  The rest were left behind to fend for themselves after they lost the protection of whatever gods had been shielding them for so long.

Yamaguchi was too cowardly and his heart held too much doubt for him to be considered pure.  He was jealous and nervous when he had no right to be and this caused him to be left behind with every other member of his team.

Some surprised even him. Especially the captain and Suga-san. But after the initial confusion passed and everyone determined what had actually happened, they admitted to corruptions of their heart that they couldn’t speak of.  Not in plain words at least.

Tsukishima was no surprise though.  Yamaguchi may have held him on a pedestal above everyone else, but even this did not come as a shock.

They agreed to stay together. The fourteen of them.  They didn’t know what happened to the coach or Takeda-sensei and not all of them knew what happened to their parents.  They didn’t doubt that many of them were left behind. Some had parents that allowed them to leave the family in order to be with a group that had a greater likelihood to survive. 

They gathered up supplies from each of their houses before starting to move.  They determined quickly that it was dangerous to stay in one place.  Resources ran out if they stayed in one place.  Rogue groups would find it easier to hone in on a party of teenagers if they stayed in one place.

So they moved.  They didn’t know where they were going and they didn’t know if there was anywhere to go, yet they moved.  They stayed away from those they did not recognize, and avoided once heavily populated areas at all costs.

They realized that they were right to continue moving once the first waves started coming.  People who were too irresponsible with their resources and those who realized that there was going to be nothing left for them once they died began isolated raids to take whatever they wanted. Whether it be for food or ammunition or a steady shelter.  They tended to go after those who stayed in one area for too long. 

However, they realized they were wrong to stay in such a large group when they became a target.  It was difficult to move without a trace when you had 14 people to account for.  It could’ve been a fresh fire pit or impressions in the grass from where they slept that night. Their number simply made them easy to track.  Their age made them a vulnerable objective.

They didn’t get away with much.  Everything in Yachi’s and Kinnoshita’s backpacks. A rifle Daichi had taken out of his father’s closet. 

The physical damage to the group as a whole was a little bit worse.  Tanaka broke his arm trying to break a fall.  Kiyoko tore open the skin of her knees when she was pushed to the ground. Various bumps and bruises and broken lips on nearly everyone else. And then there was Tsuki getting shoved off of the bridge that they had been cornered on after he tried to stop one of the men from picking up Yachi. 

Yamaguchi had been watching from the periphery of the brawl.  He’d never been much of a fighter, so all he could think to do was to swing the metal baseball bat one of the men had dropped until it connected with something solid.  He lost his grip on the bat and it struck Hinata in the side as he watched Tsukishima fall, his shout coming out as a mangled scream.  He watched Yachi scramble to the side of the bridge, but it was too far and too fast for her to have done anything.   Yamaguchi didn’t hear Hinata shout at him to stop as he sprinted across the asphalt.

Everything ground to a halt at the first gunshot. His friends froze, ducking their heads down because surely it was one of their attackers that had pulled the gun.  But as the men who had assaulted them started scrambling away, taking their meager winnings with them, the others slowly started raising their heads to see that it was Yamaguchi standing over a crumpled body.

It had been a clean shot. One to the head was all it took to drop the man.  Yachi sat pressed against one of the bridge supports, hands over her mouth and sobbing as she stared at the blood that had splattered on her pants.  Suga was the one to coax the gun out of his hand, assuring him that he would give it back as soon as Yamaguchi calmed down.  Daichi, Asahi, Noya, and Ennoshita were the ones who scrambled below the bridge to look for Tsukishima while the rest cared for their injuries.  In no less than 45 minutes later, they returned, saying that they had searched up to a mile downstream with no luck.  The water was moving much too quickly for anyone to have made it out.

Yachi had pressed Tsukishima’s glasses into Yamaguchi’s hands before retreating.  They must have fallen off of his face before he fell into the water.

They spent the night off the side of the road, close enough to the bridge so that Tsukishima would be able to find them if he was still alive.  But not even Yamaguchi believed he was.

That night was just over six months prior to the one Yamaguchi had just endured.  He spent no longer than a week with the group after that, deciding to strike out on his own so that he could do what the rest of them refused to.

One benefit of being alone was that it was easier to hide.  The house he spent the night in was one that he never would have dared to stay in if he had been with the other 12.  It was too small for such a loud group as theirs, and there was a good chance the upstairs floors couldn’t hold that much weight.

On that night, he had found shelter with a bed.  Shelter with a door that had to be locked with a heavy bookshelf pressed against the frame.  Shelter with broken windows and glass scattered across the floor from the kitchen to the family room.

But still, it was shelter nonetheless.

He couldn’t recall the last time he had actually slept in a bed.  Probably sometime over two months ago, when he had braved breaking into an old motel and ended up leaving half an hour after midnight because he heard gunshots and saw fire through the grimy panes of the window. After that, he couldn’t find it in himself to stay anywhere that obviously screamed shelter.

One night, he had slept in the break room of a gutted law office.  There was nothing to lie on and no food or comfort, but there was carpet, and sleeping under a rickety table was better than sleeping under the uncertain, open sky.

And of course one of the best places he had ever stayed at was also one of the worst.  It was a gym, and the gymnastic mats had provided a good night’s sleep while the half full pool had allowed him to wash the mud and grime off of his skin.  He found stale granola bars and still sealed jugs of water as well as bandages and medicine.  But the benefits were outweighed by the fact that the gym was much too open.  The rafters creaked and the walls moaned and every movement he made echoed off down the never ending hallways.  He was certain someone else was in the building from the way the shadows moved across the cracked mirrors even in the middle of the night.  Yamaguchi had pulled a bar away from the weightlifting room and barricaded himself into a locker room to sleep.  It would have been restful if it wasn’t for the nagging feeling that whoever else was in the building was going to get him in the middle of his sleep. 

He would’ve stayed there for a few more nights if he could have.

But really, it wasn’t safe to stay anywhere for very long.

And he wouldn’t want to stay anywhere for very long when he had to find the monsters that took Tsuki away.

Yamaguchi sat up when the sun fell across his eyes.  He threw back the pink duvet that was probably at one time white before kicking his legs over the side of the bed.  The hardwood floor was gritty and dirty below his bare feet, so he quickly pulled on his thick socks before toeing on his sneakers.  The skin on his left arm felt tight and sore as he stretched his arms over his head, reminding him that he needed to tend to the wound he had received there two weeks prior.

After shucking off his outer shirt and unwrapping the bandage from his bicep, Yamaguchi inspected the cut.  He had received it while running away from a group of men who undoubtedly wanted to rob him of everything he had left.  He had tripped and fallen while ducking down to hide behind a dumpster.  An old glass bottle sliced his arm and he bit his tongue until he tasted blood to hold back a scream.  For that reason alone they did not catch him.

But because of this injury, Yamaguchi realized how much of this new society surrounded itself with broken glass.

Broken windows.

Broken bottles.

Broken mirrors.

Tsuki’s broken glasses wrapped in a handkerchief in his back pocket.

His wound was healing nicely.  This was the first morning that no blood spotted the bandage.  It pulled away clean instead of sticking to his skin, leaving behind a thick, dark scab that was starting to peel away from the thinnest edges.  Yamaguchi could see the faint, pink new skin underneath, but he left the scab be with a fear of restarting the bleeding and getting an infection.  He awkwardly retied the bandage, fumbling in the final knot with only his teeth and right hand to work with.  Once tied, he pulled his long sleeved outer-shirt back over his head before tying his jacket back around his waist.  He grabbed his backpack and handgun from the ground, shoving the latter in the waistband of his pants as he made his way to the stairs. 

He had found the gun beneath his parent’s bed the night after people started disappearing.  Yamaguchi was glad his parents were able to go, even if that meant he was left behind.  He was also glad that his dad had found enough foresight to purchase the weapon.  If it was meant to protect him before, it could protect him now.  Even if it was being held in the wrong hand.

He moved down the stairs carefully because there was no guarantee that the bottom floor of the house was still vacant with the blown out bay windows in the kitchen.  But no one was there as his sneakers crunched through the broken glass on the gray linoleum kitchen floor.  He rooted through the cabinets to find anything edible that might have survived the past few months.  Yamaguchi assumed that the family who lived in this house (a mother, father, and their daughter if the dusty pictures on the wobbly TV stand were anything to go by) had most likely been taken.

Disappeared. Raptured.  Or whatever else you wanted to call it.

When Yamaguchi found the house, all of the clothes sat pristine in the closet.  Drawers had been yanked open and valuables removed, but everything else sat untouched.  The windows were probably broken by some other vagrant like himself who had scavenged through the kitchen for food and the bathroom for medicine before leaving through the front door.

 Yamaguchi had already scanned the rest of the house for something that may be valuable to him. He found a golden earring that rolled underneath the floral print couch.  A stack of bandanas in a kitchen drawer that he filched to use as bandages if the need arises.  He also swapped for a new pair of jeans that didn’t have holes and thin spots in them.  The man of the house was clearly a few centimeters taller and rounder than Yamaguchi, but that was easily solved with rolled hems and a dark leather belt.

Most valuable was a box of shells in the hollow leg of the master bed that matched his handgun exactly.

He found a can of mini sausages and another of peaches in the furthest corner of the highest cabinet.  The sausages made his stomach roll when he popped the tab, but he pinched his nose and swallowed them whole so he could actually get some protein without having to catch it.  He washed the sour taste down with peach juice before standing from the kitchen table, tossing the empty cans in the sink as he left the room.

Before pushing the heavy bookshelf away from the front door, Yamaguchi grabbed the picture frame with the family in it off of the TV stand.  He swiftly struck the frame against the wall, shattering the glass to take out the picture.  He may not know them, and they may not know him, but they helped him more than he could ever express on this night, and he wanted to remember their faces despite never knowing their names.

Yamaguchi kicked the broken glass off of his shoes before stowing the picture in his backpack in the middle of the stack of bandanas.

He finally pushed the bookshelf away from the door.  It felt heavier than it did the previous evening.  Probably due to the fact that he was rushing to get somewhere safe before the sun completely set the night before and now he was forcing himself to leave the closest thing to comfort that he had experienced in a long time.

He struck off down the residential street that the house stood on.  Most of this area was blackened and the road was covered in ash.  Each time his foot struck the asphalt, a little cloud of dust puffed up around his ankles.  Yamaguchi pulled up the neck of his shirt to cover his nose and mouth, knowing that he probably shouldn’t inhale whatever the ash was composed of.  He hoped and doubted that it was nothing more than wood from the rotting family homes, but without being privy to the area, there was no telling what had actually occurred here.

He wandered aimlessly about the residential area for a while, not sure which way to go now that the sun was so high in the sky.  He had wanted to continue moving south, closer to Tokyo.  When he had been with the group, they had been going north.  But the further north they went, the colder it got and a fewer amount of people they saw.  So when he left, Yamaguchi moved south.  It had taken a while to get to the point he was currently at.  He had gotten lost. Sick.  Stranded in the midst of the spring storms. He figured he had to be getting pretty close to Tokyo at this point.  He assumed that Tokyo was the best place to go to find who he was looking for.  As the formerly most populous area of Japan, Yamaguchi simply figured that someone might be there who could help him find the people he was looking for.

He already killed the man who killed Tsuki.  But that wasn’t enough.  He couldn’t imagine being satisfied until all of the men in that group were gone. If they had killed someone who was just trying to defend a friend, Yamaguchi could imagine how much pain they were causing to other people.

Hell, they could’ve even burnt down the small square of houses that he had slept in last night.

They’d be better off dead, Yamaguchi reasoned.  They’d be better off dead and Yamaguchi was going to be the one to go after them.

The other guys were convinced it was simply a suicide mission, and honestly, it probably was.  He’d already lost everything that really mattered to him.  His parents and Tsuki.  He felt a little bitter thinking that they were the only things that he felt connected him to this world.  He knew he was being petty by not considering his other friends and former teammates as a reason to keep living.

He supposed it was because they didn’t want to help him go after those men.

They didn’t want to avenge their friend as he thought they should.

“The one who killed him is already dead.”

“They’re stronger than us, and they probably will have more weapons next time we see them.”

“They’ll kill us, too.”

Excuses.

Just excuses that made Yamaguchi’s stomach boil and heart burn with a fire that he didn’t know could come from his own motivation.  He didn’t understand. It was Tsuki.  He would do it by himself if he had to, but he wanted to give them the opportunity to come with him.

And they shot him down.

They begged him not to go. Noya and Tanaka held onto his legs until Daichi made them let go. Narita and Ennoshita jogged to catch up with him to give him a small sack of food and bottled water that he refused when they begged him to stay with them.  Kageyama said that he was stupid.  Kiyoko even cried when he shouted at them all for not being brave enough to go with him.

Now that… that really made him feel like shit

But regardless, it didn’t change his decision to leave.

He was going to do this.

Yamaguchi continued to walk through the town until the sky began to darken.  He had only reached the edge of the houses when the first signs of sunset began to appear, so he doubled back, walking through a trickling stream of water that had accumulated in the streets in hopes to cover the prints of his sneakers in the ash.  He figured that tonight it would be safer to return a few blocks deeper into the skeleton homes, rather than lodging in the first few buildings someone would reach if they entered the town on the same road. 

He had slept so late this morning, that he was not surprised that he had barely made it this far.  What did surprise him though was the couple crooked streetlamps that halfheartedly flickered on when the night finally settled. 

Probably an old generator working overtime somewhere nearby.

But still, the lights made him uneasy.

Lights meant life, and life meant he probably wasn’t alone.

And not being alone meant he had to sleep with his shoes on and his gun in his hand.

Yamaguchi watched the street through an upstairs window until his eyelids grew heavy and his fingers cold from gripping the metal butt of the gun.  Before he slipped to his makeshift bed below the windowsill, he sees a longhaired black cat chasing a moth below the yellow light of the street lamp.


	2. Chapter 2

It took another few days for Yamaguchi to reach the outskirts of Tokyo.  He knew he wasn’t that far away based on the markers by the highway he decided to travel on, but he still had to be careful.  He couldn’t travel along the road for a long period of time, but he didn’t like being so far away from it that he couldn’t find his way back to it if he needed to.  He didn’t have a map.  He didn’t have any way to find his way other than the signs on the highway that no cars ran down anymore.

His first sights of the big city were staggering.  The few times he had been to Tokyo previously had given him impressions of a never sleeping city.  One full of life and light and noise and people.  But what he saw now was eerie.

The tall buildings stood silent, windows black and front doors locked.  Shops and homes and apartments with barred windows and splintered doors and dying plants and dirty windows.

Empty parks with broken swings and old main roadways barren and devoid of life beyond the occasional bird fluttering down to snatch up a bug.

He did not enter the city the first night he saw it.  Instead, he took refuge in an overturned van that still had intact doors that he could close up around himself.  As the sun set, and for some time after this point, Yamaguchi watched the city for any signs of life.  He saw a fire burning here or there from the darkest parts of Tokyo.  He made a mental note to avoid the area at night, but to approach it sometime during the day. Someone there could know the men he was looking for.  Someone who could help him find them.

The streets of Tokyo were cleaner than the streets of the cities he had passed.  The city did not have the same kind of burnt smell that the country side had.    But in the city, the buildings were scarred.  The roads were cluttered with abandoned cars and trucks. 

There was also a distinct metallic scent pervading the city, but with the number of gun shells slipping under his shoes, that was no surprise. He stepped over metal shells and dried blood that smelled like iron and he kept walking. 

Keeping his head down, Yamaguchi followed streets he vaguely recognized into the city.  On the outskirts of town, he made his way through a small shanty settlement housing the first people he had seen in a good month.  The town was comprised of tiny little huts made of cardboard and fiber wood and aluminum sheets.  The shacks spread out for as far as Yamaguchi could see, the little town spotted here and there with piles of rubble from what were probably once old businesses or houses.  Amongst the debris were the people. They were dirty and thin and sat on mats of old newspapers outside the doors of their homes, yet the small children still ran through the street, playing and shouting in their threadbare clothes. 

Yamaguchi stared down at the cracked asphalt as he walked, trying to avoid the probing eyes and questioning looks of the starving people he passed.  He half wished that he had circled around the settlement to avoid potential interaction with anyone, even if the detour would have taken him half the day.

He could see the end of the shanty town when something caught his leg, causing him to stumble.  Yamaguchi felt a scream bubble up in the back of his throat when he looked down to see a person hanging off of his pant leg, their grimy fingers clawing at his calf.  He tried to kick the person off, but they simply came with him as he shook his leg.  He couldn’t even tell if the person who had latched onto him was a man or a woman from how dirty their face was and how loosely their clothes hung from their frame.  They tried to speak to him in aborted mumbles as they dragged themselves out of their makeshift home.  They didn’t appear to even feel the cracked bricks digging across their bare shins as Yamaguchi stepped farther into the street, pulling them along the ground as he tried to escape.

Yamaguchi roughly shook his leg again, trying to dislodge the boney fingers now encircling his knee.

“L-let me go.” 

The person made no move to release him, simply clawing their fingers up his leg as Yamaguchi continued to try and pry them away.  Their crazed mumbling became more coherent as their volume increased, and Yamaguchi could tell they were begging him for whatever he had in his backpack.

“Let me go.” Yamaguchi spoke more firmly this time, causing the person to momentarily pause in their actions.  They ignored him, not noticing as he reached a hand to the waistband of his pants.  “Let me go.  I have a gun.”

The person let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a choke and a laugh.  Yamaguchi gasped and tried to take a step back as the person threw their weight against him in an attempt to push him off balance.

Yamaguchi pulled his gun from the waistband of his jeans, the smooth metal of the barrel making him shiver as it slid against his hip.  The person immediately let go of his leg as the barrel was pressed against their forehead.

“Stop!”

Yamaguchi took a step away from the person as the loud voice boomed out down the street.  He held his arm straight out, keeping the gun pointed at the person as he continued to back away.

“Hey buddy, put the gun down.” A young man, dressed in all black from his boots to his jacket approached Yamaguchi, hands raised on either side of his head.  Yamaguchi couldn’t discern his features as his head was covered by a hood that cast a dark shadow over his face.  However, his voice seemed vaguely familiar, so Yamaguchi lowered his gun, pointing it towards the ground even though his finger was still on the trigger.

The man lowered his hands as he continued to approach Yamaguchi.  He sharply pointed his thumb at the person still shitting themselves on the ground, and they scrambled back inside their shack, sliding a street sign over the hole as a door.

The man came to a stop in front of Yamaguchi, observing him quietly under the darkness of his hood.  Yamaguchi barely noticed when the man plucked the gun from his hand and shoved it back in his waistband.

The man clapped his shoulder and called him with his fingers.  “Come with me.”

“Wait, what?”

Without giving an answer, the man strode off down the road, coming back from the way he had come.  Yamaguchi jogged along behind him, trying to match his long strides.  He noticed the man had a large gun strapped along his back and suddenly understood why he returned Yamaguchi’s small handgun instead of keeping it for himself.

When he finally caught up with the man’s pace, Yamaguchi still held a couple of steps behind so that he could keep him in his sights.  The man led him to the gates of an old school building.  The gates were closed with chains and heavy locks, and the school’s name was covered with overgrown vines and a low hanging tree, but the school building and gym itself were still recognizable from Yamaguchi’s recent memories.

“Hey.” Yamaguchi called out to the man who was now busying himself with undoing one of the padlocks.  “Hey, why did you bring me here?”

“Why?”  The man straightened up as one of the chains fell to the side, allowing the gate to slide open.  “Because you’re Freckles, aren’t ya?”

Freckles? Yamaguchi frowned as he was pushed inside the gate.  The man reached his arms back through the bars of the gate as it clanged shut, clicking the lock back in to place before turning back towards Yamaguchi.

“Come on. You’re from Karasuno, aren’t you?”  At Yamaguchi’s hesitant nod, the man laughed.  “Thought so~.  But I can’t believe you don’t remember me though.”

At Yamaguchi’s confused look, the man let out another piercing laugh before pulling back his hood.

He had the same strong angular face that Yamaguchi remembered, with the addition of a red-tinged bandage taped below his left eye.  His hair was shorted and shaved to a taper up to the back of his head, but the messy mop still sat on the top.

“Kuroo-san.”

“Ding, ding, ding, you win the prize!” Kuroo grinned as he stretched his arms over his head and began making his way across the court yard.  “But honestly, Freckles, you’re the last crow I would’ve imagined finding in the slums with a gun to someone’s head.  Guess you aren’t as much of a cupcake as I thought.”

“My name is Yamaguchi.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry.  But to be honest, you should be thanking me.  If you had actually shot that man, you’d be nothing more than bones right now.”

Yamaguchi shivered, imagining what could have happened had Kuroo not come.

“I still don’t understand why you brought me here.”

Kuroo shrugged, cursing as the butt of his gun bounced up and hit the back of his head as his shoulders moved. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.  Couldn’t leave a wounded crow out on the street to die.”

“Why were all those people out there?  Why don’t they do something?”

“Those, my friend, are the slimy grease-balls who still think they can rely on the charity of people who tried to convince themselves that they were too good to get left behind.  It worked for them for a good month after everyone got raptured…when people thought they could barter their way in by helping those less fortunate and blah blah blah.”  Kuroo pulled another key off of a chain dangling from his pocket and turned to face a door that Yamaguchi remembered to house the locker rooms and training camp dorms.

“So, we should be the only ones back right now.  Everyone else is supposed to go out in pairs and look for supplies and other people we may know during the day.” Kuroo ushered Yamaguchi inside, locking the door behind the both of them.  “Kenma’s probably here though.  He’s technically my partner, but he moves kind of slow so I leave him behind sometimes.”

“I heard that.”

Yamaguchi jumped as Kenma’s voice trailed over a stack of boxes from the next room over.  The scare was more due to the fact that Yamaguchi could not pinpoint the source of the voice, rather than being startled at a sudden sound.  Being scared and jumpy at everything was not a luxury that this new world afforded.  But, the hallway where he and Kuroo stood was so crowded with boxes and supplies that he could hardly move, much less be able to figure out where a voice was being thrown from due to the high, echoing ceilings.

Kuroo led him to the room where Kenma sat, sewing together dyed pieces of fabric into what looked like a coat.  Kenma gave Yamaguchi a blank stare, as if he was trying to remember who he was, before nodding at him and turning his face back down to his work.

“Kenma, you remember Yamaguchi? He’s from Karasuno.”

“I remember.” Kenma hissed as he poked his finger with a needle. He stuck his finger in his mouth before looking at Yamaguchi again.  “Why are you alone?”

“Yeah, why are you alone?” Kuroo sat down beside Kenma on a stack of gym mats.  He gestured for Yamaguchi to sit as well on the bench across from them.  “I can’t imagine that you’re the only crow that didn’t get raptured.  I figured Mr. Grumpy Glasses would be right along with you.”

Yamaguchi felt a lump in his throat form at the mention of Tsuki.  He knew Kuroo didn’t know, but he couldn’t help but hang his head and look away rather than answering the question.

“Hey. You okay, little dude? I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I’m fine, I just…” Yamaguchi tried to swallow down the pain and rubbed the back of his hands against his eyes to ward off the impending waterworks.  “I don’t want to have to say it more than once. Or hear it repeated.  And if there’s more guys here that would wanna know…”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, Guchi. Why don’t we wait to hear your trials and tribulations until the other six get home tonight, okay?”

“That’s okay.”

“Alright then!” Kuroo jumped up from his seat, before extending a hand to Yamaguchi.  “So, hungry? Want a shower? We still have water in one of the locker rooms if you want to clean up.  And we can get you in some clothes that actually fit you, too.  Don’t worry little crow, we’ll take care of you here.”

Yamaguchi let himself be pulled up and dragged along behind Kuroo into the cluttered hallway.  He heard Kenma sigh in exasperation as they left, the dark hallway consuming the entrance to his room as they moved farther away.  Yamaguchi was grateful to get an actual shower instead of splashing water against his face from a stream or puddle, and new clothes and food didn’t sound too bad either.

Maybe, with all the help that Kuroo was giving him, he might be willing to help him with his main goal as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow progress gets you to where you want to be! Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

The remaining six returned throughout the day in groups of two.  Kuroo didn’t tell him initially that their small party was comprised of old students of both Nekoma and Fukurodani High School. 

When the first Owls showed up (Yamaguchi remembered their names to be Akaashi and Konoha) Kuroo made light of the fact that most members of both teams had been taken in the first sweep.  All of the first years from both teams were taken by the rapture, as well as some of the second and third years.   By the time the teams had joined forces, they were a mere party of eight, smaller than even Karasuno’s group.

They reintroduced themselves as they returned, as many of them did not recall who Yamaguchi was.  Like Kuroo and Kenma, they too were surprised that Yamaguchi was alone, and pestered him as to the whereabouts of his friends.  He remained silent, biting his lips as he waited for Kuroo to instruct him to tell his story.

When all had arrived, the final eight was comprised of Kuroo and Kenma, with Yamamoto, Yaku, Bokuto, Akaashi, Konoha, and Komi.

And with Yamaguchi they made nine. Despite being the youngest there, they accepted him wholeheartedly.

(Especially after he told them he had made his way from far north of Miyagi to Tokyo by himself with nothing more than a healing cut on his arm to show his journey.)

That night, they sat on the counter tops of the tiny kitchen to eat what Konoha had thrown together on their jerry-rigged gas stove. Short candles sat on the center table of the kitchen, bathing the room in an orange light as they combatted the growing night.  Yamaguchi ate in silence as he listened to all the other boys recount their discoveries of the day.

Akaashi reported that there was a new sinkhole that had fallen in the main intersection a mile down the road, making everything past it inaccessible unless you wanted to take a half day hike to make it around the red camp.  Yamaguchi didn’t know what the ‘red camp’ exactly was, but he figured that he didn’t want to know from the way Yaku X’ed out a large portion of the city on a map that sat on the center table.

Bokuto and Komi found that a new settlement had popped up in one of the buildings they had been salvaging materials from.  Komi laughed that it was good that both he and Bokuto were fast or they may have not been able to outrun the large men that came after them. With their report, another thick black X popped up on the map.

Yamamoto and Yaku didn’t have much to tell.  They scanned a few wrecked stores and came back with razors, jelly beans, nails, and a sewing kit complete with needles, buttons, and thread.  A round of applause came with the razors, and Yamamoto loudly proclaimed that he had already taken the time to shave his head and face.  Yamaguchi smiled with them, all the while rubbing his soft chin that had so far never needed a shave.  He would admit that he wouldn’t mind a haircut because the ponytail thing wasn’t really his favorite look, but he didn’t want to be a bother.

Kenma stiffly announced that he had started making winter clothes for everyone since he felt a chill when standing on the roof last night.  The group politely thanked him, before finally turning their gaze to Kuroo and Yamaguchi sitting beside him.

“Well, as you’ve all been able to tell, we’ve got a new member of our little family.” Kuroo clapped Yamaguchi on the back, a sly grin spreading across his face.  “Not sure why yet, but this little crow has flown all the way from Miyagi by himself. Kenma and I have been waiting so patiently all day for him to tell us his story, so I figured it was about time now that we’ve all gathered here together on this beautiful night.”

Yamaguchi swallowed thickly, kicking his legs against the counter softly as all eyes in the room turned towards him.  He could tell they were all tired from the dull looks on their faces, so he promised not to speak long as he began.

He started with the facts.  All fourteen had set out to stay alive, and they had for a short month.  They got attacked, Tsuki died, and he left to find the guys who took away the most important person in his life.

He left out that part, simply referring to Tsuki as his best friend, rather than what he actually meant to Yamaguchi.

He quickly briefed over what he had gone through in the six months he had taken to get here.  Hiding, running, surviving.  The details didn’t matter at this point.  The only thing worth any value was what he was looking for, and who was willing to help him.

The group sat in silence as Yamaguchi finished his condensed recount of his trip.  Some sat with stunned looks on their faces, others looked at him with unreadable stony expressions.  No one spoke in the spare moments after Yamaguchi stops talking.

Bokuto is the first to speak up, hopping off of his counter seat to walk to the center of the room.

“Tsuki’s dead?”

“Yeah.”  Yamaguchi hung his head down, hiding the sour look on his face as he repeated it again.

“Woah, there’s no way. I can’t believe that.” Bokuto began pacing back and forth until Akaashi reached out and stopped him.

“Sit down.  You’re not going to help by reminding the poor guy that his friend is gone.”

“What I can’t believe is that Tanaka didn’t help you.” Yamamoto hacked a large loogie into the grimy sink beside him before crossing his arms across his chest.  “I thought he was better than that. What a bitch move.”

“Tanaka-senpai broke his arm in the same attack.”  Yamaguchi gripped his thighs, trying to ground himself as he remembered that day.  “He wouldn’t have been any help.”

“Still coulda done something.”

“So…” Yaku spoke next, tapping his fingernails on the center table.  “Now you’re looking for someone to help you go after those guys.”

“Not even that.” Yamaguchi shook his head as he tried to figure out what exactly it was he needed. He hadn’t actually tried to verbalize it before.  “They went south after they attacked us.  They’re surely long gone by now, but I know what they look like and I was hoping at least someone may be able to point me in the right direction.”

“So you can go after them and get yourself killed.” Yamaguchi turned his gaze towards Konoha who was sitting on the edge of the party, cheek propped on one had.

“N-no, I’m not looking to get myself killed, I just want-”

“To go after a large group of men who killed your friend, by yourself, and not get killed. Riiiight.”

Yamaguchi shook his head, turning his gaze towards the floor as he tried not to cry from frustration.

“Well what if we came with you?” Komi, who had been sitting on top of an old microwave, spoke up to save Yamaguchi from Konoha’s derogatory line of questioning.

Yamamoto slapped the counter beside his thigh in agreement. “Yeah! We’ve been thinking about leaving Tokyo anyway!”

Bokuto shouted and hopped off the counter again.  “And with this, we’d actually have a goal or a purpose and shit!”

And with that, their small group disintegrated into a dull roar as the conversation flowed. Yamaguchi watched in silence as they deliberated until Kuroo jumped off the counter.

“Shut up!” Kuroo’s voice boomed through the small kitchen and echoed off the metallic appliances.  “I don’t even know what the hell you guys are fighting over.”

“We were just-”

“Yamamoto shhhh…” Kuroo climbed up on a chair, making him even taller than everyone else in the room.  “One at a time, what do we want?”

Yaku raised a hand and Kuroo nodded at him. “Like Yamamoto said earlier, we’ve been discussing leaving our safe house here in Tokyo. We’ve started drawing attention to ourselves by scrapping around town all day and bringing everything here.  Plus, look at this.”

Yaku grabbed the map from the center table, and handed it to a couple guys sitting behind him so they could hold it up.

“This is where we are right now.”  Yaku pointed to a small red circle on the map, barely a blip on the wide map of the city.  “This purple part is the slums, which is getting more and more violent and unstable by the day.  The black X’s are buildings that groups have taken up as residence.  Red X’s are parts of Tokyo that are unsafe to go to, either due to fires, sinkholes, or rogue groups who have set up camp.”

“We basically have the whole city mapped out, and every day, it becomes more dangerous to stay.  Someone is probably going to try to get in here soon and take everything we’ve stored, and after that, who knows what’s going to happen. In my opinion, no matter what we do when we leave Tokyo, we just need to go. And soon. Within the next week or so.”

“Thanks, dude.” Kuroo nodded at Yaku and he sat down, folding the map back up into a square.  “Any opinions against leaving Tokyo?”

Konoha raised a hand, and spoke before Kuroo turned his head. “Not so much an objection rather than a question. Do we have what we need to survive outside the city?”

“Well, I think so, but maybe we should ask the guy who’s been out there all along.  What do you think, my man?”

Kuroo clapped Yamaguchi on the shoulder, urging him to speak.  “Uhm…you guys have a lot more stuff that I did while I was alone.  S-so if you leave soon…you’ll be fine if you use everything well.”

“Fair enough, fair enough!” Kuroo turned back towards the other seven, looking for any objections. “If there’s nothing else, why don’t we say we scrap scavenging tomorrow and start planning to leave Tokyo?  All in agreement?”

A resounding chorus of acceptance following, and Kuroo clapped his hands in front of his chest.

“Alright. Plans to leave will be started early tomorrow morning, and at the earliest we can leave is the day after. Now….” Kuroo looked around the group before hopping off of his chair to come and stand by Yamaguchi.  “What do we do once we leave?”

As soon as the question left Kuroo’s lips, Komi and Bokuto’s hands shot into the air. Kuroo let Bokuto speak first.

“I wanna help Freckles! For Tsuki!”

Komi jumped up from his seat on the microwave, planting both feet firmly on the countertop. “Yeah, me too! I don’t know Yams here or that Tsuki guy very well, but we can’t just let him go off and get himself killed!”

“You guys don’t have too-”

Yamaguchi is cut off by a hand on his shoulder and a fierce look from Kuroo. “Don’t be stupid.  If these guys want to help you, you should let em.  And I want to help you, too.”

“Are we going to vote or anything, or are we just going to assume that we all want to go?”

Everyone turned their attention towards Kenma now, sitting on the floor in front of the refrigerator.

“Do you not want to leave Tokyo?” Kuroo asked, cocking his head to one side.  “You know it’s not safe.”

“No, I don’t want to intentionally get in a fight. It’s dumb.”  Kenma blew a stray hair out of his face as he drew his knees to his chest.  “I’ll go where everyone else goes, but I don’t want to go if it’s only you three that want to do it.”

“Calm down. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.” Kuroo jumped off of the chair he was standing on and looked around the room. “Are there any more comments that need to be made before we do this?”

When no answers came aside from a few shrugged shoulders, Kuroo clapped his hands together to bring all attention to himself.

“So obviously, Yamaguchi, you can’t vote in this because you’re kind of like the prize in this situation.”

Yamaguchi nodded, clasping his hands between his knees as he waited for the group to give their verdict.

“Alright everyone, hands up if you want to help Freckles here go after some bad guys.”

Yamaguchi closed his eyes as Kuroo finished speaking, slightly fearful of what the group’s response might be.  He knew he needed help.  He knew he couldn’t go after those men and survive all on his own.  But he also didn’t want anyone else he knew to die.  He knew they probably all would die eventually due to the small fact that society was crumpling around them and the world itself would probably implode any day now.  But still, he didn’t want any of them to die for some unreachable whim of avenging a lost love.

He took a deep breath to calm himself before opening his eyes again.  He quickly scanned the room, letting out a deep sigh as he realized everyone except for Kenma had raised their hands.   Konoha’s was only shoulder high, showing slight resistance when compared to the exuberant ceiling high hands of Bokuto and Komi, but it was up nonetheless.

“Majority wins.  We’ll start setting up to leave in the morning.”  Everyone started clambering off of their seats and making their way out of the kitchen, before Kuroo called them back for one last announcement.

“Oh yeah, beat the sun tomorrow. If we can get everything done tomorrow, we can leave early the next day. The sooner we’re gone the safer we’ll be.”

The group nodded solemnly, accepting Kuroo’s warning with grim faces washed of color by the candlelight. They wished each other a last good night before trudging off down the hallway.

Kuroo waited for Yamaguchi to jump down and follow before snuffing out the candles between his thumb and forefinger.


	4. Chapter 4

That night, Yamaguchi accepted a small spot on the floor in the same room that everyone else slept in.  He squeezed himself between Komi and the wall, flinching each time the small boy spread out after getting kicked in the side one too many times.

Yamaguchi tried to sleep, he really did.  He was grateful for the assistance, though he doubted he would ever get the opportunity to thank Kuroo and the others for it.  He had been scared to go off alone again, and meeting all of these familiar faces was comforting.  Especially since some of them cared for Tsuki, as well.

The windows of the room they slept in were boarded up, but cracks in the slats still allowed slivers of moonlight to pass through.  The light illuminated tiny specs of dust floating in the air, reminding Yamaguchi of the little stars that could probably be seen clearly in the skies of Tokyo now that the power had gone out across the city.  Yamaguchi wondered if the stars here looked the same as they did back home.

The last time he genuinely admired the stars was a few weeks before everyone started disappearing.  A meteor shower was supposed to take place that night, so he invited Tsuki over to watch it with him.  They had climbed out of his window and up his mother’s vertical garden to get to the roof.  He had known his mom would be mad when she noticed the bruised roses, but he honestly didn’t care after he got to see Tsuki’s face illuminated in the moonlight.

Yamaguchi had always thought Tsuki was handsome… beautiful even.  He had known for a while now that the feelings he had for his best friend were more than that, but he never thought to actually say it out loud.

So instead of confessing and making things more awkward than they needed to be, he just sat back and watched him.  He watched the way he rolled his shoulders in class when he was trying to work out a difficult problem.  He watched the way Tsuki’s eyes widened in self-contained joy whenever he made a good block in a volleyball match.  Yamaguchi watched the way he pursed his lips and rolled his pencil between his fingers when he came over to work on homework after school.

Everything was so small, so insignificant, that Yamaguchi wasn’t sure why he was latching on to these small mannerisms as if they were his only lifeline.  Looking back on it now, he was glad he paid such close attention.  If he was never going to see Tsuki again, at least he had those little things to look back on and smile upon, even in the darkest days.

It was those small things like the way Tsuki’s face lit up each time a new meteor fell from the sky, or the anticipation in his restless legs as they waited in the darkness that Yamaguchi loved the most.  He couldn’t tear his attention away that night, and while it wasn’t the first time he got caught staring, this was surely the most embarrassing because he couldn’t make himself stop after Tsuki’s eyes met his.

“What’s wrong with you?” Tsuki propped himself up on one arm as they waited for the next shower of meteors to start.  “You look like you’re about to throw up.”

Yamaguchi laughed and tried to move from where he was laying without losing his balance.  “Don’t worry, Tsuki! I’m okay!”

“I’m not worried.”  Tsuki huffed and flipped back onto his back as a streak of light cut across the night sky. “Yamaguchi.”

“Yes, Tsuki?”

“Don’t do anything too clichéd. It’s embarrassing and gross.”

Yamaguchi felt his face scrunch up in confusion as he watched Tsuki’s profile. “What do you mean, Tsuki?”

Tsukishima mumbled something so softly under his breath that Yamaguchi couldn’t hear it.  He refused to repeat it, simply crossing his arms over his chest and biting his tongue until the meteor shower ended. 

Yamaguchi crawled down the trellis first, keeping his arms up to catch Tsuki in case the wood swayed under his weight.  Fortunately it didn’t, and the gravel of the garden crunched under his shoes as his feet hit the ground.  It took a minute or two before he turned around to face his friend, but it was instances like this that made Yamaguchi so thankful that his patience was endless when it came to the tall boy.

Tsukishima’s cheeks were uncharacteristically flushed and he crossed his hands low in front of his body.  He twiddled his thumbs and waited for Yamaguchi to say something to break the silence, but he was out of luck.

“You can’t keep staring at me like that if you’re not going to do anything about it.”

Yamaguchi cocked his head to the side in confusion, unsure of how exactly he was staring.  “Like what, Tsuki?”

“Like that.” Tsukishima nodded in Yamaguchi’s direction. “Like with your eyes all wide and your mouth hanging open like you just saw the best thing ever.”

It was Yamaguchi’s turn to blush, and he covered his mouth with his hand in case it was still agape. “Oh, I’m sorry… I’ll try to stop, Tsuki.”

Tsukishima huffed loudly, startling Yamaguchi at the loud display of annoyance.

“You’re so stupid.”

“Wait, I don’t-”

“I didn’t say I wanted you to stop.” Tsukishima took a step forward, backing Yamaguchi up until the back of his knees hit his mother’s hedges.  “I just said to fucking do something about it.”

Yamaguchi felt a shiver run through his body at the intense gaze Tsukishima was pinning him with.  “Tsuki, I don’t understand what you-”

“So stupid.” Tsukishima took another step forward, and with nowhere else to go, Yamaguchi let him approach until their chests bumped together.  Yamaguchi had always liked how tall Tsuki was, and he liked how it felt when Tsuki looked down at him now.  His eyes were hard to see in this darkness, but Yamaguchi still felt the heat of his gaze as it mapped his face from forehead to chin.

Yamaguchi closed his eyes when Tsuki leaned closer, sure that everything was just a dream, and the next time he opened his eyes, he’d be in bed.  But no, even with his eyes closed, he could still feel the graceless bump of Tsuki’s nose against his own, and the shaking uncertainty of Tsuki’s hands as they clasped around his wrists.  Tsuki brought Yamaguchi’s hands to his neck before dipping his head down to brush his lips across Yamaguchi’s mouth.

Yamaguchi could tell he was too uncertain to do much more than that, so he pressed up on his toes, arms tightening around his neck as he brought Tsuki’s face down so that he could kiss him properly.  Tsukishima’s hands found their way around his waist, pulling him closer until there was no more space between them. 

Tsukishima kissed him until the back porch light of Yamaguchi’s house came on.  They separated before Yamaguchi’s mother walked outside to call them inside for the night, and they both ducked their heads down as they passed her, hoping that she wouldn’t see their red cheeks.

Yamaguchi was no longer embarrassed. Far from it actually.  He never imagined that Tsuki would ever return his feelings.  Not in a thousand years.  And the fact that he did was beyond anything he had ever hoped for.  He was so content being Tsuki’s friend, but having him in the way he had wanted for so long was perfect.

It was all perfect.  From the way Tsuki smiled up at him from his makeshift bed on the floor to the way his arm fell asleep as it hung over the side of the bed to hold Tsuki’s hand all night.

It was perfect, and there couldn’t have been a better time for them to come together in this way.  They were both finally in high school and they were both finding out who they are and what they wanted from life.  And if this was what Tsuki wanted too, Yamaguchi was glad they could start now so they could be together for as long as they were meant to be.

Yamaguchi wouldn’t have changed a thing if he could in that moment.

Of course, his perspective would change a few weeks later when the world practically ended and everything came crashing down on their heads.

Perfect?

Indescribably so.

But the time was much too short, and Yamaguchi could never get back the years he wasted pining after Tsuki when they could’ve been so much more.

But…at least he had still been his friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I had been procrastinating on writing this fic because I have started school for the semester. but then, I remembered, I already had this chapter written. whoops????


	5. Chapter 5

Sometime during the night, Yamaguchi was able to fall asleep.  He had pulled his backpack to his chest and curled around it, hoping to find a comfortable position to sleep in. His back felt like someone had been stepping on it all night, he assumed Komi had finally stilled long enough to let him relax.  It was only a few hours before his blurry eyes cracked open, but what woke him was not the light of the sun or someone shaking him awake because he had slept too long.

What woke him was the sound of rattling chains and the loud, metallic noises of someone sawing against metal.

Yamaguchi reached up to the window above him and pried off a board that was nailed into the wall too loosely.  He heard someone curse as a ray of sunshine hit his face, but Yamaguchi quickly blinked the white light out of his eyes to see what was going on outside.

“Someone’s trying to break the gate.” Yamaguchi’s voice was hoarse with sleep, but the boys closest to him stirred enough for him to try again.  “Guys, wake up! Someone’s trying to open the gate!”

Konoha was the first to move, nudging Akaashi in the side before crawling over to slap Bokuto in the face.  He glanced over his shoulder at Yamaguchi before he started shaking a comatose Komi.

“How many?”  Akaashi crawled towards the window to look for himself.

“A lot. We need to go now.”

“Yeah.”  Akaashi stood up, sliding on his boots before he moved to help Konoha wake up the few remaining sleepers. “Do you know where the storage is?”

“Yeah. Kuroo showed me.”  Yamaguchi stood as well, lacing up the boots Kuroo had supplied him with last night before grabbing his backpack.

“Go there and start packing up eight bags of what you think is the most important.  Don’t worry about the guns or knives. We’ll all grab our own on our way out.”

Yamaguchi and Akaashi both flinched when they heard the sound of a chain sliding against the metal of the gate before crashing to the ground.

“I’ll send them as they wake up.  We probably have 15 minutes, at most.”

Yamaguchi nodded before rushing out of the room (and not so gingerly kicking a snoring Yamamoto and Kuroo in the sides as he stepped over them).  He weaved through the hallway, avoiding all the stacks of boxes and old gym equipment as he tried to make his way to the storage room that he knew was full of medical supplies and food.  He began stuffing the packs he found hanging from the wall as Akaashi instructed.  Two packs of medicine and two of survival supplies.  The rest he stuffed with food and whatever other miscellaneous necessities he found scattered around the room.  He felt the entire room shake when something large collided with the strong metal door down the hallway, and he prayed to himself that the other guys would come and claim their packs soon.

Yaku rounded the corner as an ear piercingly loud squeal came from the bolted door at the end of the hallway.  He helped Yamaguchi tie all of the packs down before climbing to the top of the lockers to pull down the winter clothes Kenma had been sewing together for everyone.  He tossed them down to Yamaguchi in bundles, and they secured what they could to the outside of the packs.  The larger coats would just have to be worn.  It may only be around July or August at this point, but as soon as the days started getting shorter, the cold would come again.  Yamaguchi silently thanked Yaku’s thinking because if it had just been him, he knew he would have forgotten that.

Another loud, creaking, whine from the door resounded through the building as more members of the group rounded the corner.  With just enough help to grab all of the bags, they sprinted out of the room, knocking over boxes and piles as they went to make the hallway near inaccessible to both them and the people that were trying to break into the safe house.

Yaku led them to the back of the building and into one of the gyms where Kuroo was waiting with Kenma and Bokuto.  They had prepared a weapon for each member of the group, even Yamaguchi.

“I know you’ve already got a handgun, dude. But this one will make us all a little bit safer, yeah?”

Yamaguchi took the gun in hand and wondered to himself where they had managed to collect all of this from.  Guns were not something that was easily accessible in Japan.  His own father had had his handgun for sport and protection.  Though the protection was not something he had reported purchasing the weapon for.  Before all of this, there was not a real reason for a civilian to have a gun for protection and therefore, owning a firearm was essentially illegal with very few exceptions.

But the gun Kuroo handed him was almost militaristic, and it made Yamaguchi’s hands shake to hold something so deadly and powerful.  He ignored his misgivings and strapped it around his back, before patting his waistband to make sure his handgun was still there.

Once everyone received their weapons, they did a quick headcount which was interrupted by a loud bang out in the hallway.  They began hearing shouts and a few gunshots, and Kuroo put a finger to his lip to make sure everyone stayed silent.  They crossed to the opposite side of the gym where the only other exterior door was blocked with a metal bar.  It took entirely too long and created too much noise for Yamaguchi to feel comfortable, but eventually Yamamoto and Bokuto were able to pry the bar away and open the door.

It barely opened, but all nine boys were able to pile outside and slam the door shut before the gym got flooded with the intruders.  Kuroo led the way to the back of the school, doing his best to keep everyone out of sight and quiet as they crept to the back gate.

The group had almost made it to the gate before Kenma tripped over a fallen branch, snapping it in two with a loud crack that echoed over the abandoned school yard.

“Run!”

Yamaguchi lurched forward as Yaku’s hands pushed into his back, urging him onwards.  They reached the back gate of the school quickly, but their pursuers were hot on their heels as Kuroo struggled with the lock.

“Fuck! Everybody over! It’ll be faster!”

Kuroo grabbed Yaku by the waist, hoisting him over his shoulders to grab the top of the cinderblock fence that the gate was attached to.  Yaku grabbed the fence, and after another good push from Kuroo, he was on top and ready to pull other people over.

One by one, they filed over the fence as the shouting and gunfire got closer to their location.  Soon, Yamaguchi, Kuroo, and Bokuto were the only three left on the ground.  They both hoisted Yamaguchi up by his legs, pushing him up to grab Yaku’s outstretched hands.  Instead of hopping down to the other side, Yamaguchi stayed on the top of the fence to help Yaku pull Bokuto up.

By the time it was Kuroo’s turn, the intruders had them in clear sights.  Yamaguchi could only think of the word ‘faster’ as Kuroo tried to jump high enough to grab one of the three hands stretched out to him.  He was finally able to scramble up the wall when a stray gunshot flew past him, sending up a cloud of dust as it crumbled the cinder block wall.

They fell to the other side of the wall and Kuroo shouted for everyone to run, not giving himself the opportunity to rest for even a second as they were still being pursued.

They entered the maze of buildings behind the school, hoping to lose those chasing them as they ran.  Eventually, the crowd of abandoned houses and shops merged with the slums that made up most of northern Tokyo.  They slowed their pace to a jog so they didn’t startle the people still rousing themselves from sleep.  The group stopped their movement completely before they entered the shanty town ahead of them.

“I think we’re safe now.  I don’t hear gunshots anymore.”

“Kuroo, how the hell can you hear anything after getting shot at like that?” Yaku grabbed Kuroo by the shoulder, pulling him down to his level to check the growing river of red staining his right cheek.

“Oh shut up, it didn’t even hit me.  I got this because a piece of stone smacked me in the face when the bullet hit the wall.”  Kuroo gently touched the side of his face, wincing as his fingers came away sticky and red.  “At least I’ll have matching bandages on my face now. One for each eye, right, Yaku?”

Yaku rolled his eyes as Kuroo removed his back pack so he could tend to the cut on his face. “So what now?  Not exactly how we were planning on leaving.  And damn it I didn’t grab a map!”

“We’ll just have to figure it out from here.” Konoha crossed his arms across his chest, looking more than slightly irritated by their situation.

“Oh man, what are we going to do?” Komi shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his entire body shaking with anticipation as they waited for Kuroo to finish up.  “I mean really, what are we going to do?”

“Just get out of the city for now and find a place to camp down for the night.”  Akaashi placed a hand on both Komi’s and Bokuto’s shoulders, stilling their nervous energy.  “I think we should let Yamaguchi lead us out.”

“Me?”

Akaashi nodded his head. “You know the way back up I’m assuming.  We’re heading towards Miyagi, right?”

“That sounds right.”  Yamamoto agreed before offering a hand to Kuroo to pull him from the ground.  “Best way is to retrace Guchi’s steps at least.”

“Sounds good to me.” Kuroo dusted the dirt from his pants before straightening up.  He had plastered a clean bandage under his eye and wiped his face on his sleeve.  “Let’s get going.”

They trekked their way through the slums, only moderately concerned that they would be attacked or approached by one of the residents.  One man did grab the leg of Yaku’s pants, and Yamaguchi winced as the short boy kicked the heel of his boot into the man’s head.  They were all ruthless, and willing to do what it took to get out.

Yamaguchi was grateful for it.

The nine scrambled up a hill just outside of the shanty town, and took one last moment to look back across the city.  Yamaguchi wanted to leave more than anything but he understood the sentimentality of survival.  Most of the others had probably been living in Tokyo since they were born, but they all had survived for the past seven months together, in the locker rooms of Nekoma high school.  Yamaguchi couldn’t take this moment from them by rushing.  It may be the last time any of them looked upon their old home.

“They’re burning it aren’t they?”  Kenma’s whisper pierced the heavy silence that had fallen over the group.  All heads turned in the direction of where the school stood.

The buildings themselves were not visible from this distance, but the thick, black clouds of smoke were.

“That doesn’t make any damn sense.  There was a shit ton of supplies in there.” Yamamoto mumbled under his breath, jaw shaking as he was unable to turn his face away.

“I think it’s time to go now.”  Everyone slowly nodded their heads and turned away at Yamaguchi’s call.  The former Nekoma students took the longest to pick up their bags from where they had been dropped, but all eventually turned to follow Yamaguchi down the hill.

Once they reached the bottom, only the tallest buildings in Tokyo were still visible, but the acrid scent of burning wood still filled their noses as they continued to walk.

“Don’t look back” was the only advice Yamaguchi could think to give them.  First left behind by the rapture, now uprooted from the city that they had known as home for so long.

Just like the sentimentality of survival, Yamaguchi knew one thing very well.

There were no words to comfort others in these dark times. 

You just had to keep moving forward, because the only way to be sentimental about the places you left behind was to stay alive.

And more than simply staying alive, you have to survive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't forgotten about this :')

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt suggestion by my dearest Iza. Can't say exactly what the prompt was at this time without giving the ending away, but lets just say that this is going to be fun.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and thanks for Dina and Kat encouraging me to go ahead and post it even though the rest of the fic is not complete yet. So yeah, I'm doing this instead of KuroTsuki week, so have fun with it~


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